One of the things I wanted to be sure to do was to see a play at La Comédie Française - Molière's former theatre and one of the most beautiful in Paris. When I tried to book tickets in online before we left, they were sold out for all performances this week. As luck would have it, while I was taking pictures of the outside of the theatre, there was a sign indicating tickets available one hour before the performance so I rushed in and got 3. We saw Molière's Le Mariage Forcé which was a real treat as they set it in modern times, but using the 17th century language. This is a very interesting play which I did not know before seeing the representation. It is a satirical take on forced marriage, only in this story, the 53 year old man is "forced" into marrying a 20 year girl by her gangster father to inherit his money - The father made him an offer he couldn't refuse.
As Molière's presence is still very much alive - just like Shakespeare in England and elsewhere - it doesn't get any better than seeing one of his plays at La Comédie Française in Paris.
Sounds wonderful!
ReplyDeleteThere is a Google book with several of Moliere's plays (in French with an English translation, originally side-by-side, digitized to read page-after-page, published 1907)! Here is the link:
ReplyDeletehttp://books.google.com/books?id=ZDpLAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA251&lpg=PA251&dq=le+mariage+force+english+translation&source=bl&ots=Snb__he_e4&sig=WU6CA5CASihiLLofMjoNJOPnl68&hl=en&ei=U9wpTJuqNcOblgeF5qCcAw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CBUQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q&f=false
I downloaded a copy so you have it for consideration for the lit in translation course.
Ok-that link posted in a very weird fashion. I'll email it to you so you have it.
ReplyDelete